Giving Dreamfish a Grant

Yes, I know LinuxCon has come and gone, and I think they’ve got the publicity thing covered, especially with the 20-year thing and with Linus being there and all. The buzz is still going, and that’s good. But if you’re going to a Linux show, make it the Ohio LinuxFest in September. Bradley Kuhn and Cathy Malmrose are keynoting, so you’ll not want to miss that (especially Cathy — Go ZaReason!)

As mentioned in blogs past, Grant Bowman lives and breathes what it means to be a FOSS advocate; a talented, experienced IT guy who is always there for projects. Lindependence? He’s there. Partimus? He’s there, too, not only as a volunteer but as a board member as well. OLPC San Francisco? Presente. Ask Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and Fedora, and they’ll tell you he’s been ambassadors for all. In no small part, the computers at the KIPP School in San Francisco, all running Linux, are humming along thanks to the volunteers who keep them running. One of the hardest working volunteers in the group? Grant, of course.

Few people know his accomplishments because Grant treats the proverbial spotlight as if it were plutonium; avoiding it seemingly at all costs. He works behind the scenes and gets things done without concern for his own recognition or promotional gain.

Since I’ve known Grant, I’ve considered him a good friend; not in a superficial Facebook sense, but in a bounce-stuff-off-of, ask-for-advice, got-your-back-dude, have-you-over-to-my-house friend. He’s always been focused on promoting FOSS, but more importantly, he’s been focused too on helping people.

Dreamfish apparently gets how valuable Grant is to any organization, since he’ll now serve as the Technologist in Residence for the Dreamfish Community Tech team in Nairobi, Kenya. For three months starting in September, Grant gets to impart his knowledge and wisdom in managing the project team there.

The Dreamfish team will be engaged for six months. They have already been working for about three weeks. According to Grant, “they are doing a fantastic job and will continue after I am gone,” once Grant’s
three-month residence is over.

Grant will also take the reins of FOSS promotion as well. He says he’d like to facilitate connections with OLPC too, and connecting with FOSS groups in Nairobi as well.

“From August to November, our team will build new online community technology for Dreamfish, a global peer development network connecting entrepreneurs and individuals working together to realize their dreams. Dreamfish is the first internet-based global cooperative, co-owned by hundreds of women entrepreneurs, youth entrepreneurs and professionals in 26 countries.”

So, admittedly, you might be saying to yourself, “that was quite a windup.” And you’d be right, because here’s the pitch.

The Dreamfish Community Tech project needs equipment and funds; more of the latter, as is always the case, but some of the former if you have a laptop you’re not using. Remember that “sandwich” blog I wrote back in June? This would be a good example of how to put that grilled ham and cheese that you don’t really need to good use — and I’ve donated a sandwich a week for a month (rounding that up to $25) to get this project going. The good colonel — ColonelPanik of LtFSG comment fame — has done the same. Now it’s your turn.

And Grant, make sure you put that return trip ticket in a safe place.

This blog, and all other blogs by Larry the Free Software Guy and Larry Cafiero, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND license. In short, this license allows others to download this work and share it with others as long as they credit me as the author, but others can’t change it in any way or use it commercially.

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software in his new home office. Watch this space.)